Kartoffelbrot

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Potato ricer or food mill
• •Kitchen scale
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Bench scraper
• •5-6 litre lidded Dutch oven or baking stone
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the potatoes

   Scrub the potatoes and put them in a pot with cold unsalted water. Bring to a steady simmer and cook 20 to 25 minutes, until a knife slides through without cracking the potato apart. Cook them in their skins because the skins keep the flesh from drinking too much water; the bread needs potato moisture, not a soaked mash. Save 250ml of the cooking water, then drain.

2. 2

   Rice and cool

   Peel the potatoes while they're hot, then press them through a ricer or food mill. Weigh 400g for the dough and spread it in a thin layer until completely cool, 30 to 45 minutes. Hot potato rices clean, but hot potato in dough overheats the yeast and smears starch through the flour, so the crumb turns gummy. Any extra potato goes into soup or fried potatoes. Weggeworfen wird nichts.

   Do not beat the potatoes with a mixer. It works the starch into paste, and paste makes a loaf that cuts like damp clay.
3. 3

   Mix the dough

   If using fresh yeast, crumble it into 170ml lukewarm potato water with the honey or malt if using, and let it stand 5 minutes. Instant yeast can go straight into the flours. Mix the wheat flour, rye flour, yeast mixture or instant yeast, cooled potato, salt, and caraway or bread spice if using. Add more water a spoon at a time until no dry flour remains and the dough is heavy, tacky, and rough. Stop before it slumps; potato gives up water as you knead, and a wet start turns into paste.

4. 4

   Knead until tacky

   Knead by hand for 8 to 10 minutes, or in a mixer on low for about 6 minutes. The dough will not turn silky like white bread because rye has less gluten and potato interrupts the network; look for a soft mass that stretches a little and cleans the bowl in places. Use a bench scraper instead of burying it in flour, because too much flour steals the point of the potato.

5. 5

   Let it rise

   Cover the bowl and leave it at room temperature until swollen by half to nearly doubled, 60 to 75 minutes. Don't chase the clock. Potato and rye slow the lift, and overproofing makes the loaf collapse before the crust can set.

   A cool kitchen is fine. Give it more time rather than putting the dough somewhere hot, because fast heat wakes the yeast before the flour has taken up the potato moisture.
6. 6

   Shape the loaf

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board, pat it gently flat, then shape it into a tight round or oval. That tight surface skin holds a potato-heavy dough upward in the oven; a loose shape spreads sideways. Set it seam side down on parchment, cover, and leave 40 to 50 minutes, until puffy and a finger dent returns slowly.

7. 7

   Bake the loaf

   Heat the oven to 230C with a lidded Dutch oven or baking stone inside for 30 minutes. Score the loaf, move it into the hot pot or onto the stone, and bake covered for 20 minutes. Uncover, lower the oven to 210C, and bake 30 to 35 minutes more, until the crust is dark brown, the bottom sounds hollow, and the centre reads about 96C. The hard first heat sets the crust and lift; the lower finish cooks the damp potato crumb through without scorching the crust.

   No Dutch oven, no drama. Use a preheated heavy tray or baking stone and brush the loaf lightly with water before scoring so the crust has time to expand before it firms.
8. 8

   Cool before slicing

   Move the loaf to a rack and leave it at least 2 hours before slicing. Potato bread lies to impatient cooks: the crust sounds done while the crumb is still setting. Cut too early and the knife drags paste; wait and you get a moist slice that bends without crumbling. Serve with salted butter if you like.

Chef Tips

• •Buy mehligkochend, floury potatoes, the kind that falls apart when boiled. Waxy potatoes stay tight and wet, and they don't give the bread the same soft keeping crumb.
• •The water is a range, not a dare. Hold some back, mix, then add only what the dough asks for; old stored potatoes drink less than new ones, and that is why the recipe watches the dough instead of worshipping the measuring jug.
• •Leftover plain boiled potatoes from supper are perfect. Sauced, roasted, or buttered potatoes are for eating as they are, not for this dough.
• •Do not make this from instant potato flakes unless the cupboard is truly bare. The gelled starch of a real cooked potato holds water inside the crumb; flakes give you the name without the bread.
• •Wrap the cooled loaf in linen or paper, not plastic, for the first day so the crust keeps its bite. After that, slice and freeze what you won't eat. Toasted Kartoffelbrot with soup is not a leftover problem. It's supper.

Advance Preparation

• •Boil, peel, rice, and cool the potatoes up to 24 hours ahead. Cover once cold and refrigerate; let them sit on the counter while you measure the flour so they don't chill the dough too hard.
• •For an overnight rise, use 3g instant yeast or 9g fresh yeast instead of the full amount, mix the dough, cover, and refrigerate 8 to 12 hours. Shape and finish at room temperature the next day.
• •The baked loaf keeps 3 days wrapped in linen or paper. Freeze thick slices after the first day and toast them straight from frozen.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 90g)